Ecumenistic and Syncretistic attempts to define the love which we ought to have for others demonstrate a lack of discernment and confuse that which is clear – that is to say, the unanimous view of the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Fathers. It is certainly true that God is Love and that He shows this love to all, both the righteous and the sinful, and it is also certainly true that this universal, all-embracing love ought to be manifested in our lives since this is the chief mark of a Christian. This love, however, must not contradict truth and piety – it must be united to the truth – for any other love is false and hypocritical. It must embrace its neighbour not solely as a bodily, biological being, but as a spiritual entity; it must embrace him with a view to eternity, and must be concerned above all for eternal things and not for worldly and transient things. This love must, then, concern itself with the salvation of the other.

Since salvation cannot be achieved when one is found in delusion and heresy (and particularly if one remains there egotistically), the Church, following the example of Christ and the Apostles and acting out of love, not hatred, prohibits communion with those in heresy, thereby pedagogically leading them to a consciousness of their delusion while at the same time protecting others. It is, then, out of love for those who have fallen into heresy that we deride heresy and delusion, which are impersonal, while we manifest this derision with pain of soul. The sweet and gentle Jesus Himself – the friend of harlots and tax collectors, the Prince of Peace and love – took a whip and drove from the temple those who had changed it into a profiteering venture, just as the Pope has twisted the spiritual character of the Church, changing it into a worldly, economic power…

Let us stop hiding other agendas behind the word ‘love’ – agendas which cannot be reconciled with the word itself. A wide variety of ways exist for us to exercise our love. We can feed those who hunger, clothe the naked, give hospitality to foreigners, and visit those in prison and the sick.[1] We will not change the Gospel and the Holy Canons which teach us not to associate with heretics. Are we the ones who are to teach Christ and the saints what love is? The saints are the ones who know how to define these things: we are the ones who confuse them. And this, the highest of all virtues! On the basis of this virtue, then, the Church teaches that a “good war” exists, when it is waged against the impious, heretics and blasphemers.

Similarly, “bad peace” exists when it comes from an indifference and contempt of faith and piety. This “good war” for virtue and piety was taught by Christ Himself when he declared that the Gospel will divide and distinguish men. Those who follow Him must be ready to confront hostility even within one’s own family. We must not deny Christ, the Truth, simply to avoid conflict which in this case is feigned and false since it does not include the agreement on the most important issues, that is, of spiritual things. In what other way are we to interpret Christ’s saying: “Never think that I came to cast peace on earth; I came not to cast peace, but a sword. For I came to divide in two a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies shall be those of his own household”?[2]

Saint John Chrysostom says that peace and harmony are not always good when these are directed against God, fostering vice and sin. For true peace to prevail the diseased portion must be cut off, that which rebels must be set apart. God wants the harmony of all with piety as the foundation. When men are irreverent, they provoke war: “Since the physician too in this way preserves the rest of the body, when he amputates the incurable part; and the General, when he has brought to a separation them that were agreed in mischief. Thus it came to pass also in the case of that famous tower [Babel]; for their evil peace was ended by their good discord, and peace made thereby.”[3] Saint Gregory the Theologian praises the clear and brazen “good war” even against clergy when it comes to matters of the faith. He numbers himself among the combatants and he summarizes this with his well-known saying concerning “good war” and “bad peace”: “Yea! Would that I were one of those who contend and incur hatred for the truth’s sake: or rather, I can boast of being one of them. For better is a laudable war than a peace which severs a man from God.”[4] Therefore, love without piety and truth is false, pseudo-love.

Fr. Theodore certainly embodies what he preaches here. He puts on no airs about the preaching of the truth. He shows the same love, respect, and humility towards the truth, no matter what the consequences or no matter what the source.
One of the many examples was on Sunday after liturgy during his lesson that he conducts each week in the ahodariki. On such an important Sunday as the Sunday of Orthodoxy, when we have endless sources of the confession of Orthodoxy from great Saints such as Sts. Gregory, Basil, or John Chrysostom, the accounts of the holy martyrs, of St. Maximos the Confessor or St. Photios the Great, of St. Mark of Ephesus or St. Gregory Palamas, of St. Athanasios of Paros or St. Nicodemos the Hagorite, what does Fr Theodore choose to present? He chose to read to us a hand-written submission by a student at the theological school of AUTh (though, truth be told, he did spend time on some of the writings of St. Nicodemos afterwards! He can’t resist presenting the holy fathers to us!).
And what was this piece? A description of the various heresies and deviations from the Faith that the student was hearing from different professors in class, and beseeching those wiser in the Faith to stand up in defense of it.
I have to be honest, when I heard the list, I couldn’t help but imagine a new service of anathemas being composed as father was reading. To all those who deny the miracles of the old and new testament and instead attribute them to scientific causes alone. Anathema! To all those who claim the gnostic texts that say Jesus had a wife may be accurate. Anathema! To all those that claim the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the Holy Fathers applied ‘at that time’ but not to us today. Anathema! To all those who claim the only way to be a true academic theologian is to distance oneself from belief in the Faith. Anathema! Unfortunately, the list went on!
And Fr Theodore, a famous emeritus professor of Patrology, well-known internationally for his participation in conferences and dialogues over the years, a former theologian of the Patriarch of Constantinople, chose to read the hand-written description of a first-year undergraduate student to those of us gathered simply for the sake of the Truth that this letter of protest witnessed to.
It just showed to me again that the pursuit of truth in the right way will manifest itself in humility and love – as Fr Theodore showed both towards the concerns of this ‘lowly’ undergraduate student, and towards the Truth – not disdaining it where-ever it is found. This to me was an excellent example of the manifestation of true love in the pursuit of truth.